HC tells government to act on ACB’s liquor scam report

HYDERABAD: The high court on Tuesday directed the state government to act within four weeks on the report of the ACB that brought out the various misdeeds of liquor syndicates in the state. The division bench, comprising acting Chief Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Justice Vilas V Afzalpurkar, put off the hearing by five weeks to monitor the progress in this regard. The ACB had submitted its final report on the liquor syndicates to both HC and state government on Monday.

The bench made this order while dealing with two petitions against liquor syndicates and the 'spectator role' being played by the state and its machinery. One of the petitioners had even sought a CBI probe to unmask the real culprits behind the scam. However, the bench ruled out any CBI probe at this stage. "One of the state agencies has already completed its probe and submitted its report, and unless the report is set aside, the question of probe by another agency does not arise," Justice Ghose said.

When the counsels for the petitioners expressed objections over the report being kept secret and apprehensions that the authorities might dilute the issue, Justice Ghose advised them to reserve their fears for some time. "Let the state act. Do not make any submissions now. We have gone through the report. Remember, we are monitoring the case and it will come back to us after five weeks," the acting CJ said. Advocate general A Sudarsan Reddy told the bench that the state would act within four weeks on the report.

The ACB said it was waiting for permission from the government to proceed further in the case under Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.